Valentine day eve and I am finally sitting down with a cup of peppermint tea. What a busy week we have had! My daughter caught the chickenpox last Thursday so we have spent the week tied up at home nursing her back to health.
I love valentines day, actually I don’t think there is a holiday I don’t like 🙂 one day of the year we take out of our busy lives to show that loved one how much we love them. And there is always is a delicious meal involved!
My valentines baking this year is a Chocolate Guinness Cake. A friend gave me this recipe after baking it for me when I came home from hospital with my new born daughter. I fell in love with its dense chocolatey flavour and light cream cheese frosting. The Guinness enriches the chocolate flavour without giving a stout taste. The recipe calls for baking just one layer of cake but I prefer dividing the mixture between two 9″ baking tins an sandwiching the layers with the frosting, that way you get a more even ratio of cake to frosting!
Chocolate Guinness Cake
For the Cake
- 250ml Guinness
- 250g unsalted butter
- 80g Cocoa powder
- 400g Caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- 140ml Buttermilk
- 280g Plain Flour
- 2tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
- ½ tsp Baking Powder
For the Frosting
- 50g Softened unsalted butter
- 125g full fat cream cheese
- 300g Icing Sugar
- Cocoa Powder for dusting.
Method
- Grease and line the base of two 9 inch cake tins.
- Preheat the oven to 170C .
- Pour the Guinness into a saucepan and then add the butter and heat gently until the butter has melted. Remove from the heat and add the cocoa powder and sugar into the warm mixture.
- In a bowl, mix the buttermilk, vanilla essence, and eggs together. Add this to the mixture in the saucepan.
- Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a mixer or hand held whisk. Mix on a low speed and add the mixture from the pan. Mix thoroughly until all of the ingredients are incorporated.
- Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for approx 30 minutes.
- The cake will be baked when the sponge bounces back when pressed lightly and a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool down, remove from the tin onto a wire rack and set aside until it has completely cooled down before adding any frosting.
- To make the frosting, using a mixer or hand held whisk, mix the butter and icing sugar together until it is fully combined and smooth. Add the cream cheese and mix on a medium speed until light and fluffy.
- Once cooled place one of the cake layers on a serving plate and cover with half the frosting, place the second layer on top and spread the remaining frosting on top.
Happy baking,
Bácáil with Love (Bake with Love)
Bácáil with Love 